180 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



from Europe, which came from Styria, south of Vienna, in Austria. The 

 inferiority of the American to the German wool is not due to climate or 

 other natural causes, nor is it owing- to a want of skill on the part of our 

 breeders. It is owing to the fact that but a very few of our manufactur- 

 ers have ever felt willing to make that discrimination in prices which would 

 render it profitable to breed those small and delicate animals which pro- 

 duce this exquisite quality of wool. No American breeder thinks of hous- 

 ing his sheep froin the summer rains and dciv, or observing any of the hot- 

 JioHsc regulations — at least in the summer — of Graf Hunyadi, or Baron 

 Geisler ! If he did, his wool would not probably pay lialf of its first cost. 

 When our manufacturers wish to find these wools in the Jiome market, 

 they must learn to 2'"^JI ft)r them in the Jto?ne market as liberally as they 

 are compelled to to obtain them in foreign ones ! 





dM'\'\' 





THE NEW tEICESTER, OR BAKEVVELL. 



The portrait above is copied from one of a sheep of this variety, belong- 

 ing to the Duke of Bedford, given in Mr. Youatt's work on Sheep. 



" The unimproved Leicester was a ' large, heavy, coarse-wooled breed' 

 of sheep, inhabiting the midland counties of England. It is described also 

 as having been ' a slow feeder, and its flesh coarse-grained, and with little 

 flavor.' The breeders of that period regarded only size and weight of 

 fleece. The celebrated Mr. Bakewell, of Dishley, was the first who adopt- 

 ed a system more in accordance with the true principles of breeding. He 

 selected from the flocks about him those sheep ' whose shape possessed 

 the peculiarities which he considered would produce the largest propor- 

 tion of valuable meat, and oifal,' and having observed that animals of me- 

 dium size possess a greater aptitude to take on flesh, and consume less 

 food than those which are larger, and that prime fattening qualities are 

 rarely found in sheep carrying a great weight of wool, he gave the prefer- 

 ence to those of smaller size, and was satisfied with lighter fleeces." To 

 reach the wonderful results obtained by Mr. Bakewell, it was supposed 

 that he resorted to a cross with some other varieties, but it is believed by 

 some that he owed his success only to a judicious principle of selection, 

 and a steady adherence to certain principles of breeding. 



1372] 



